How TO Determine What Drives YOU

Moving forward and setting goals is one part of having a business mindset, but running before you can walk means that a relentless pursuit, without a clear, driving force can leave you feeling unanchored and disorientated. Determining what’s driving you forward and what it is that you’re busting a gut for will help you to set more achievable and meaningful goals.

Misinterpreting your motivating factors means that you’ll fail to progress with precision too -- being blown off course by business challenges is easier if you avoid preparing and adapting your drive. Thought leader Gretchen Rubin’s work found that “The happiest and most successful people are those who have figured out ways to exploit their tendency to their benefit”. "Tendency" in this case, is your driving motivating factor.

I know what you’re thinking: This is all easier said than done. And you’re right, you’re going to have to do some soul-searching and introspective chin-stroking to get to the root of what drives you in your personal and professional life.

Let’s take a look at some methods you can use to determine your drive.

Redefining What Success Means

Here’s my story. I was running a multimillion-dollar marketing company in Silicon Valley and I was "successful." But this was on the outside. On the inside, I was feeling lost and disenchanted with the environment I’d curated.

I was at a crossroads. I’d got to a point in my business where I’d delegated almost all of the meaningful work to my employees. I didn’t feel connected to my very own company. I’d constructed distance between myself and my creation.

I’d built a company that I wanted to leave, so I set about redefining the success I’d created. I started reaching out to others and rediscovering the power of sharing. Through this process, I realized that drive is cyclical: It’s always shifting and needs to defined and refined constantly. What keeps you driven is a basic understanding of yourself and the company you keep, as well as being more creative with the idea of "success."

So, whether you realize your drive is to be more environmentally conscious in your business or to create more time for yourself -- it must make sense, but you must also reevaluate and be flexible with your motivations. Really be honest with yourself here about what makes you tick.

Getting to Your Why

You’ve probably come across Simon Sinek before -- he’s a vibrant, smart guy and, like me, he reassessed his drive and motivation when he lost passion for what he was doing. His energy was taken up by pretending to be happy and in control, but this lead to a period of unhappiness and disillusion. Simon broke things down and looked at the three elements that make up the decision-making process for most organizations: what we do, how we do it and why we do it.

Soul search and break down your life to find the "why." It’s similar to the way we look at features and benefits when selling a product. People want to know how an item will improve their lives, as well as what it does. So, when thinking about your own why, think of the benefits: Literally visualize your ideal scenario and work backward to find out what’s motivating your action.

Ask others around you and close to you about what they think. Sharing and communicating with people on a deeper level can lead to some interesting insights about yourself and different perspectives. Once you find your "why," it becomes easy to view your life through a "why" filter and make professional and personal decisions that complement your values and happiness.

Understanding Your Platform

Sometimes, you need to step back and assess whether your message or platform is driving you at your core. One key issue is whether the way that you’re perceived is consistent with your values, ethos and drive. The persona you’re adopting on social media and the content you’re producing might have an effect, but not the effect that you’re looking for to get you closer to the goals you’ve aligned with your drive. You need to understand the image you’re creating for your brand.

There have been a lot of controversies recently with YouTube content creators, the vast influence they wield and the type of content they’re putting out. Some creators may be making lots of money through advertising revenue and partnerships, but if the content they’re creating starts to get more controversial, obscene or violates terms, then it starts to compromise the drive and goals they originally had.

Being contrarians muddies the water. If a driving factor was to make their family proud, news stories about disrespectful actions will affect them adversely. Is the platform benefitting that goal and drive?

Changing one's approach is sometimes needed, and other factors and influences (in YouTube’s case, content views and monetized video) can get distract people from their true drive.

Final Thoughts 

Think about your notion of success, deconstruct it and identify what really makes you feel happy, wholesome and secure. Think about why this is and start creating goals that will get you closer to your driving motivations.

Look at the platforms you’re on and, more crucially, think about the way that you’re using them. Really ask yourself if you’re getting closer to the goals that you’ve determined from your driving factors. The perception you’re putting out might not be true to your offline personality and the platforms you’re using can become self-sabotaging to your driving motivations.

Lastly, be realistic and flexible, because your driving factors may change and your idea of what constitutes success will too. Make it your responsibility to re-connect regularly with yourself and find your drive.

Writer: Bryan Kramer

Source: forbes.com